Memphis was almost like going to California. Beale Street was the black man's street.

I went to school, but they didn't give you too much schooling because just as soon as you was big enough, you get to working in the fields. I guess I was a big boy for my age.

That Mississippi sound, that Delta sound is in them old records. You can hear it all the way through.

I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing.

The blacks have their parties, hustle a little liquor, get some things together, and I used to play for those peoples. They'd come get me on time, but they wouldn't bring me back on time... Done picked cotton all day, play all night long, then pick cotton all day the next day before I could get a chance to sleep.

The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.

Man, you don't know how I felt that afternoon when I heard that VOICE and it was my own VOICE.